I am writing to you in connection with the ENVI vote on CETA tomorrow. I would like to urge you to support the draft opinion of the ENVI committee, given by rapporteur, Bart Staes.

As a journalist, I have been writing about CETA since 2012 (https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20120709/07420719630/actas-back-european-commission-trying-to-sneak-worst-parts-using-canada-eu-trade-agreement-as-trojan-horse.shtml), and have followed its long and complicated history closely. I noted in 2015 that CETA has already harmed the EU's environmental policies (http://arstechnica.co.uk/tech-policy/2015/05/eu-dropped-plans-for-safer-pesticides-because-of-ttip-and-pressure-from-us/):

"One of Canada's key negotiating aims was to promote the use of its tar sands in Europe. In 2012, the EU's Fuel Quality Directive (FQD) proposed that tar sands should be given a 20 percent higher carbon value than conventional oil. This reflected the greater pollution caused by its production and was designed to steer companies away from using this particular form of fuel in the EU. However, a few weeks after CETA was concluded, the final version of the FQD had been watered down and lacked the earlier requirement that companies needed to account for the higher emissions from tar sands, effectively neutering it—exactly as Canada had demanded."

Environmental policies will be under attack thanks to the little-known requirement in CETA that parties have to ensure "that licensing and qualification procedures are as simple as possible and do not unduly complicate or delay the supply of a service or the pursuit of any other economic activity." It is easy to foresee company lawyers arguing that environmental requirements go beyond "as simple as possible", and that they "complicate or delay" the supply of a service.

However, the greatest threat to the EU's environment comes from the investor-state dispute settlement mechanism, now re-branded as the Investment Court System. Despite the change of name, and some minor tweaking of the process, the problem remains the same: foreign investors are given unique powers, not available to domestic investors, that place them above national and European law.

That's problematic enough in itself, but even more troubling is the fact that the area where ISDS/ICS has been used most is against environmental legislation. Also worth remembering is that CETA allows non-Canadian companies that have operations in Canada to take advantage of this supranational right: that will enable thousands of US companies that have subsidiaries in Canada to sue the EU.

04 January 2017

I may soon have spare slots in my
freelance writing schedule for regular work, or for larger, longer-term projects. Here
are the main areas that I've been covering, some for more than two
decades. Any commissioning editors interested in talking about them
or related subjects, please contact me at glyn.moody@gmail.com (PGP
available).

Digital Rights, Surveillance, Encryption, Privacy,
Freedom of Speech

During the last two years, I have written
hundreds of articles about these crucial areas, for Ars Technica UK and Techdirt.
Given the challenges facing society this year, they are likely to be
an important area for 2017.

China

Another major focus for me this year will be China. I follow the world of Chinese IT closely, and have written
numerous articles on the topic for Techdirt and Ars Technica. Since
I can read sources in the original, I am able to spot trends early
and to report faithfully on what are arguably some of the most
important developments happening in the digital world today.

Free Software/Open Source

I started covering this topic in 1995,
wrote the first mainstream article on Linux, for Wired in 1997 and the first (and still
only) detailed history of the subject, Rebel Code, in 2001, where I
interviewed the top 50 hackers at length. I have also written about
the open source coders and companies that have risen to prominence in
the last decade and a half, principally in my Open Enterprise column
for Computerworld UK, which ran from 2008 to 2015.

Open Access, Open Data, Open Science,
Open Government, Open Everything

The greatest threat to openness is its
converse: intellectual monopolies. This fact has led me to write
many articles about copyright, patents and trade secrets. These have
been mainly for Techdirt, where I have published over 1,400 posts,
and also include an in-depth feature on the future of copyright for
Ars Technica.

Trade Agreements - TTIP, CETA, TISA,
TPP

Another major focus of my writing has
been so-called "trade agreements" like TTIP, CETA, TPP and
TISA. "So-called", because they go far beyond traditional
discussions of tariffs, and have major implications for many areas
normally subject to democratic decision making. In addition to 51 TTIP Updates that I originally wrote for Computerworld UK,
I have covered this area extensively for Techdirt and Ars Technica
UK, including a major feature on TTIP
for the latter.

Europe

As a glance at some of my 244,000 (sic)
posts to Twitter, identi.ca, Diaspora, and Google+ will indicate, I read news
sources in a number of languages (Italian, German, French, Spanish,
Russian, Portuguese, Dutch, Greek, Swedish in descending order of
capability.) This means I can offer a fully European perspective on
any of the topics above - something that may be of interest to
publications wishing to provide global coverage that goes beyond
purely anglophone reporting. The 30,000 or so followers that I have
across these social networks also means that I can push out links to
my articles, something that I do as a matter of course to boost their
impact and readership.

About Me

I have been a technology journalist and consultant for 30 years, covering
the Internet since March 1994, and the free software world since 1995.

One early feature I wrote was for Wired in 1997:
The Greatest OS that (N)ever Was.
My most recent books are Rebel Code: Linux and the Open Source Revolution, and Digital Code of Life: How Bioinformatics is Revolutionizing Science, Medicine and Business.